The Amazon tributary, the River of Doubt, was an unexplored force of nature. Theodore Roosevelt was a force in American politics. The clash between the two nearly claimed the life of one of America's greatest presidents. Millard brilliantly captures this struggle, her book reading like a biography and an issue of National Geographic combined.
Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition
Millard weaves in the details of T.R.'s life at relevant moments of the expedition, whether it was his boyhood romps in the forest, his experience in the Dakota Badlands, or his African safari. But it was his disappointing loss in the 1912 presidential election as the Progressive candidate that was the catalyst for this expedition. With his political career seemingly over, T.R. needed a challenge.
He would eventually take two Americans with him down the River of Doubt, his son Kermit Roosevelt and naturalist George Cherrie. The more poignant moments Millard describes are between father and son. With the expedition low on food and time, T.R., immobilized by malaria and an infected leg, was prepared to end his own life to unburden the expedition. A determined Kermit wouldn't hear of it.
Then there were the Brazilians of the expedition, led by Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon. Idealistic and disciplined, Rondon had vital experience- he directed the installation of telegraph lines into the Amazonian interior. As co-commanders, Roosevelt usually deferred to Rondon and they got along well, except when Rondon took time-consuming map measurements. Millard also describes the Brazilian laborers- Camaradas – including Julio de Lima, who murdered a fellow camarada.
Cinta Larga
In addition to getting to know the men, Millard educates the reader on the evolution of geography and nature of the Amazon and South America. After South America broke away from Pangaea and Gondwanaland, the newly formed Andies mountains to the west and an escapment to the east trapped water in an inland sea where the Amazon is today.
After this bulging sea breached the escarpment, the amazon system was born. Millard paints an unforgiving portrait of the Amazon jungle environment that developed over millions of years. Trees, plants, and animals honed their offensive and defensive skills through evolution. Any weakness in the jungle was exploited. The expedition could not find much food, but it could be the victim of piranas, swarms of biting insects, poison dart frogs, and ringed coral snakes.
The largest threat on the River of Doubt, however, were the Cinta Larga. These Indians had never had contact with the civilized world until the Roosevelt-Rondon expedition. Millard tantalizes the reader with signs of the tribe, such as Rondon's dog killed by an arrow, but they were never seen by the expedition in person. Amazingly, Millard surmises that the expedition was successful because the Cinta Larga chose not to kill them.
This book was a joy to read. Knowing that T.R. died in 1919, not in 1914, didn't prevent this reader from being on pins and needles with every turn of the rapids choked river. It's an adventure story in the same vein as Lewis and Clark.
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
Published by Broadway Books, 2005, ISBN-13: 978-0-7679-1373-7, ISBN-10: 0-7679-1373-6
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